WHEN Portugal played Greece last Sunday in the final of Euro 2004 most eyes were on the pitch, where the wizardry of Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo was unexpectedly stymied by the Greeks. But when the cameras panned up to the VIP stand of Lisbons Stadium of Light, more than a few Portuguese eyebrows were raised.

There, proudly cheering on their countrymen, were Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the next president of the European commission, and Pedro Santana Lopes, who will succeed him this week as Portuguese prime minister. Sitting between them was Barrosos wife, Margarida Sousa Uva, whom both men have known since they all studied at Lisbon University more than 20 years ago.

Behind this public show of unity lay Portugals worst-kept secret. The two political allies, both 48, are known as the rivals after a falling-out which ensured that they did not speak for almost 10 years.

The rivalry between Barroso, a dour man known as o cherne (the turbot), and Santana Lopes, described by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo as the Don Juan of Lisbon (and the father of five children by three women) was about more than just politics.

In a twist that makes the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown look like Happy Families, the Portuguese press has claimed that the conflict was for intimate reasons.

Asked for clarification, Leonor Ribeiro da Silva, the outgoing prime ministers spokeswoman, said merely: They were not the best of friends for some years.

Describing the rift as more personal than political, she insisted: The reason is not known and will never be.

In a story line that could have come from a Jeffrey Archer novel, the men first met at law school, where they headed opposing political factions, one extreme left, one extreme right.

Barroso was a Maoist activist for the Revolutionary Movement of the Portuguese Proletariat, notorious for daubing anti-capitalist slogans on walls and seizing the law facultys furniture, while his future deputy ran the Independent Movement of the Right.

Santana Lopes was already renowned for his success with women, but it was Barroso who netted Sousa Uva, a slim blonde literature student from a landed family who was considered the hottest thing on the Lisbon campus.

The two men became such close friends that they celebrated graduation together and went on to be godfathers of each others children. It was Santana Lopes who persuaded Barroso to leave academia in 1980 and join the centre-right Social Democratic party (PSD). Five years later Santana Lopes even turned down a cabinet post because his friend had not been given one.

Then in 1990 came their mysterious falling-out prompted, according to family sources, by the discovery of a pack of letters. It was only in 1999 that party elders brought about a reconciliation, worried that the rift was damaging the PSDs electoral prospects.

Barroso was chosen as party leader and went on to become prime minister in 2002. Santana Lopes became his deputy and was elected mayor of Lisbon.

So different in character are they that the Portuguese weekly Visão recently described them as ice and fire. Santana Lopes often appears in newspaper social columns and in Lisbons most fashionable nightspots, where he dances the nights away in rooftop bars overlooking the Atlantic, usually with an actress or socialite.

On the campaign trail he is followed by a band of female fans known as the Santanettes. His alimony payments are so high that he does not own a house and, even as mayor, has to write newspaper columns and do television appearances to make ends meet.

Barroso, by contrast, acquired the turbot nickname after his wife read aloud a famous Portuguese poem about the fish when he was appointed party leader. During his campaign to become prime minister in 2002 posters were stuck up exhorting voters to Follow the Turbot!.

Yet while football scouts were in Portugal seeking the top players at Euro 2004, it was the prime minister who was unexpectedly snapped up by European Union leaders for the commission presidency in preference to more divisive candidates. The appointment, initially regarded as an honour for one of the EUs smaller countries, created political chaos.

Although Santana Lopes was made party leader 10 days ago, President Jorge Sampaio, who is from the opposing Socialist party, initially seemed inclined to dissolve parliament and force elections. Opinion polls indicate that the ruling party would lose because of its support for the war in Iraq.

However, after extensive consultations with business leaders and political elders the president finally announced in a television address on Friday night that he would ask Santana Lopes to form a government.

Barroso, meanwhile, could face a difficult first few days in Brussels, culminating in a confirmation vote in the European parliament later this month that he may win by a narrow margin.

Those close to Barroso argue that he is well qualified for the job and likely to be more effective than Jacques Santer and Romano Prodi, his predecessors. Rather than extend the EUs powers, Barroso sees his role as being an honest broker between governments.

He speaks fluent English, French and Spanish and has extensive international experience, having been a professor in the United States and foreign minister from 1987 to 1992. While he was in charge of foreign policy he negotiated a peace accord in Angola.

Barroso also claims to have good fortune on his side. Before the football final he told Portuguese television that his lucky red and green tie was the real reason for the national teams success, rather than the skill of its players or the tactics of Luiz Felipe Scolari, the teams Brazilian coach.

Whatever the reason, Portugals prowess in reaching their first European final provoked a wave of flag-flying patriotism that recalled the nations days of glory 500 years ago.

Fortune may have favoured the Greeks, forcing the cancellation of sardine and vinho verde parties all over the country. But the flags have continued to fly in a nation that has suddenly rediscovered pride in itself.

For Santana Lopes and Barroso it may be remembered as the tournament where they genuinely ended up on the same side at last.

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